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Silverstone Fortress Series FT03 Review

The paint finish is superb and the edges are all nicely rounded to prevent you from cutting yourself while installing hardware. The I/O shield being on the top is convenient for installing all of your peripherals. The top of the case also By Motherboards.org

By now we are all familiar with the name Silverstone, and they have sent us another case from their Fortress Series. This is the FT03 Micro ATX mid tower case. The FT03 is made with 2.5mm thick, sandblasted and anodized aluminum, with a steel reinforced body. It also features their revolutionary 90-degree motherboard layout, which we have seen in their Raven Series, for more effective heat dissipation. It comes in black and silver currently, and retails for about 170 dollars. It's a bit pricey for a Micro tower but that's to be expected when you consider the build quality, and incorporated features.

The first thing that you notice, when seeing this case for the first time, is it's unusually tall stature compared to other Micro ATX enclosures. This is due to the 90-degree rotation of the motherboard to allow for better heat dissipation, and also takes up less real estate on your desk. This design may not appeal to everyone, but I find it more aesthetically pleasing than your average case. It's something you would want to show off.

The paint finish is superb and the edges are all nicely rounded to prevent you from cutting yourself while installing hardware. The I/O shield being on the top is convenient for installing all of your peripherals. The top of the case also comes with a nice grill to hide all of your cables, which you will then route out the back. The front of the case features a single slot loading, slim optical drive port to maintain the clean look of the case. Your front I/O ports are also found at the top of the case to preserve the look.

Just looking at this case makes you think of all things you’d like to see put in it. There are some great MATX motherboards on the market that would perfect for this case. It has plenty of cooling and ventilation to keep your hardware running cool. I really like the 90% motherboard rotation. It uses natural thermal dynamics to dissipate the heat produced within the case. And the fact that it was done so well in such a small case really shows Silverstone’s mastery in the PC case industry.